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Real or fake Linux PC? Everex will know
Sure, it's a Linux box, nudge nudge, wink wink. How many users keep the Linux that vendors sell them?
PC vendors haven't been eager to know how many users run Linux when it's preloaded on their low-end PCs, and how many replace it with an infringing copy of Microsoft Windows. Everex, the latest company to introduce a low-priced desktop Linux system, will have the information, however, thanks to the software update system behind its Linux distribution.
Everex, a PC hardware vendor that is part of First International Corporation, is introducing a mini-tower Linux system called the gPC TC2502, which is priced at $198 including keyboard, mouse, and speakers, and will be sold at Wal-Mart.
The system is not sold as "Linux," and includes a distinctive user interface that is closer in look to Apple's Mac OS X. A desktop panel includes icons for popular Google applications, including GMail, Google Documents and Spreadsheets, Google Calendar, and Blogger.
Some local software, including OpenOffice and the Rhythmbox music player, is included, but, "you get the idea that Google provides your computing experience," says David Liu, founder of gOS, the company that provides the gPC's Ubuntu-based Linux distribution.
The gOS distribution can't be redistributed freely because it includes proprietary software to support such patented media formats as MP3 and MPEG-2 files, as well as a licensed player for DVDs. Like other Linux distributions, nonetheless, it will offer an online software-update system, and Liu says that the company will be able to tell how many of the gPCs stay up and running with his company's Linux.
Chris Kenyon, director of business development for Canonical, the company behind the popular Ubuntu distribution, said at the company's press call announcing the Ubuntu 7.10 release that his company doesn't monitor the continued use of preinstalled Ubuntu outside China. There, as part of a crackdown on infringing copies of Microsoft Windows, "regulatory agencies are checking to see that Linux actually works," he said.
Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth added, "We can't tell the difference between an Ubuntu user who installed for themselves or one who used a system from an OEM."
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RE: Real or fake Linux PC? Everex will know By James on November 1, 2007, 2:53 pm Reply | Read entire comment Their statistics will be misleading because they will not be able to tell what OS was installed on top of the PC. I, for one, will be buying one of these and then...
Efficient processor. By papabearak on November 7, 2007, 6:07 pm Reply | Read entire comment I am intrigued by the efficiency of the Via C7-D processor. I am thinking of buying the slightly faster, (1.8 ghz) Via mainboard and building my own custom PC around...
Why stay with gOS? By ricegf on November 4, 2007, 1:14 am Reply | Read entire comment I'm considering buying one of these for my daughter, but if I did I would replace with Ubuntu or Xubuntu, not some stolen Windows. (Who would steal a Yugo when a...
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